Topics - scourge

Planning a trip to Israel? Might want to leave that iPad at home. The Israeli Communications Ministry has ordered customs agents in the country to confiscate all Apple iPads from overseas passengers, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

The move apparently comes after the ministry's engineering staff could not agree on a means to test the iPad's compatibility with Israel's wireless networks.

A good general rule when socializing is never apologize. There is never a legitimate excuse:

1. Your screw up was accidental. You were oblivious to your situation when you shouldn't have been. Always give others the courtesy of paying attention.2. Your screw up was intentional. Now you regret it. Why the bad behaviour in the first place?

In 2008 scientists reported the discovery of hundreds of galaxy clusters streaming in the same direction at more than 2.2 million miles (3.6 million kilometers) an hour.

This mysterious motion can't be explained by current models for distribution of mass in the universe. So the researchers made the controversial suggestion that the clusters are being tugged on by the gravity of matter outside the known universe.

Now the same team has found that the dark flow extends even deeper into the universe than previously reported: out to at least 2.5 billion light-years from Earth.

After using two additional years' worth of data and tracking twice the number of galaxy clusters, "we clearly see the flow, we clearly see it pointing in the same direction," said study leader Alexander Kashlinsky, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

"It looks like a very coherent flow."

The find adds to the case that chunks of matter got pushed outside the known universe shortly after the big bang—which in turn hints that our universe is part of something larger: a multiverse.

The outer appearance has changed, but structure and meaning hasn't for thousands of years or more.

Quote

In the social hierarchy of a wolf pack in captivity, the omega ranks below the alpha and beta wolves. In human terms, if an executive or a warrior is an alpha male and a nice-guy middle manager like The Office's Jim Halpert is a beta male, then Greenberg and his brethren are omega males. While the alpha male wants to dominate and the beta male just wants to get by, the omega male has either opted out or, if he used to try, given up. Greenberg says of his somewhat stunted best friend, "We call each other 'man,' but it's a joke. It's like imitating other people." The omega male is not experiencing the tired trope of the midlife crisis. A midlife crisis implies agency, a man who has the job and the family and chooses to reject it. The omega male doesn't have the power to reject anything—he's the one who has been brushed off. He's generally unemployed, and his romantic relationships are in shambles—he's either single or, if he's married, not happy about it. "I'm doing nothing and I'm tied to no one," Greenberg boasts.

I don't know where this fascination comes from, not just for the Nazis but for all things German. Most people don't realize that today's Germany is very different from the Third Reich. It's not surprising. Many have never even been to the next big city in their own country, so how should they know what things are like in Germany these days?

Quote

It's not just Muslims who maintain this Nazi cult. A few years ago, a Hindu businessman in India opened a restaurant called "Hitler's Cross," complete with a portrait of the Führer at the entrance. Another Hindu sold bed linen emblazoned with swastikas that had little to do with the Hindu swastika symbol for good luck. The sheets, pillow cases and bed spreads were advertised as being part of "The Nazi Collection." English editions of Hitler's "Mein Kampf" can be found in bookshops even in the most remote parts of India. And Indian schoolbooks have been known to celebrate Hitler as a great leader.

Personally, I'm still somewhat ignorant about national socialism. WWII to me is about the men and materials, tactics and strategies and the new mode of warfare for the time moreso than the politics. But, I understand why we still remember and admire the ancient empires and people like Ramses II, Vlad III, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great. It wasn't for their humanity.

1. use corrupted science and compliant media2. get crowd behind man made global warming3. keep Americans in cars, but more efficient, less emissions4. drive down price of oil globally since Americans use less5. add 2 billion more "Americans" in China and India

Quote

The vehicle emissions standards will be phased in starting with the 2012 model year, raising fuel economy to an average 35.5 miles per gallon by the time the 2016 models are ready -- up 42 percent from the current 25 miles per gallon.

Lower U.S. gasoline consumption could make more crude supplies available in the world market, which in turn could put downward pressure on oil prices.

Phil Flynn, an analyst with PFGBest Research in Chicago, said the new standards will definitely lower U.S. oil demand, but that could be offset with higher fuel use in other countries.

"We can save it here, but are these cars going to be marketable in China, where all the demand growth is going to come from?" he asked.

The rules follow an EPA finding that greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles contribute to air pollution, a danger to public health.

Like pulling iron filings off a magnet, the only goal is to remove all the falses clinging to what is true

* Do not insult your opponent; deal instead with ideas minus the personality and egos involved* Never misrepresent your opponent's viewpoint; ask for clarification instead* As one puzzle piece, small subjective experience leaves a large composite truth still unassembled* Start large in scope with the whole concept first; leave errors in minor details for last* Other than for understanding if something is popular or not, popularity cannot reveal truth* Praise for exceptional thought is needed; conforming to the expected norm is not praiseworthy

I believe some major shared concerns in our time can be resolved through parallelism, or allowing independent development to take place around the world. Apply a non-interference pact similar to the Prime Directive from Star Trek fiction.

What we have instead is the reverse: we insist, as a universal moral imperitive, that everyone, everywhere, has to be brought into an affluent North American lifestyle. The past after all, as the implied narrative informs us, was composed of 100% Pure Horror, Ignorance, and Inhumanity.

If the United States alone uses the majority of the planet's resources, but has only 6% of the world's population, our moral imperitive to upgrade 5 billion lifestyles, barring significant required technological advancements, is mathematically impossible and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Not every group is ready to responsibly, consistently maintain and advance a modern state of living. For some, their best fit for the long-term yet is hunter-gather, for others, perhaps something resembling Late Antiquity or the Middle Ages. Yet, this is unequal, and in some ways inhumane, but it is the only realistic resolution available within our finite space.

Our place in the cosmos is far less significant than our humanzee pop culture, modern religion, and liberal politics would have us believe. This collective fantasy ego drama robs our present and future of greater possibilities.

Quote

Among the more than 400 planets found beyond our solar system, there are volcanic Super Earths, gas giants that dwarf Jupiter, and worlds with multiple sunsets.

globalism: 1. the act of circumventing territorial autonomy due to the barriers they may impose upon commercial activity 2. the act of paralyzing cultural development by making culture into a commercial product and luring its creators into commercial activities as a replacement for their own cultural continuity

globalist: 1. an individual who does not value the concept of sovereign territory because borders pose various hindrances to the commercial activities that benefit the globalist 2. an individual who impedes cultural development by deconstructing it into an array of products for sale and encouraging its creators to replace their own cultural development with commercial activity

neoconservatism, neoliberalism: 1. the belief in one's own individual primacy over many aspects of reality 2. the belief that an individual makes his own reality rather than temporarily modifying his finite area of influence with varying results in quality

racism: 1. a term invented by Leon Trotsky to shame industrialized world powers opposed to the expansion of communism,in order to create resentment against these powers in the non-industrialized world and therefore encourage the non-industrialized nations to shift the world balance of power in favor of the Soviet Union 2. a term used by liberal democratic political parties and constituents in industrialized countries to stigmatize any opposing party or critic

biological determinism: the belief that inherited factors overwhelmingly influence the development of life; we are each a part of a reality that made us all possible

social determinism: a belief in human exceptionalism in that psycho-social factors overwhelmingly influence the development of human life; we create our own reality

The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO2 ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the surface because of the quantum forces involved. According to the manufacturers, liquid glass has a long-lasting antibacterial effect because microbes landing on the surface cannot divide or replicate easily.

Liquid glass was invented in Turkey and the patent is held by Nanopool, a family-owned German company. Research on the product was carried out at the Saarbrücken Institute for New Materials. Nanopool is already in negotiations in the UK with a number of companies and with the National Health Service, with a view to its widespread adoption.

We were all looking at applied nanotech back in the bbs days. Back then, ~7 years ago, because nanotech was in the planning and speculation phases, everything except simple, dumb-applications like carbon buckyball structures was impossible. At this point, we're getting into advanced dumb-apps with this glass spray. Next stage is probably basic smart apps like moving parts, articulating structures, little saws and windmills for as yet unconceived purposes. Later with advanced smart nanotech comes sensors, mobility, programmability and self-replication.

More specifically, HPD is classified as a Cluster B (dramatic, emotional, or erratic) personality disorder. The personality disorders which comprise Cluster B include histrionic, antisocial, borderline, and narcissistic.

Quote

HPD has a unique position among the personality disorders in that it is the only personality disorder explicitly connected to a patient's physical appearance. Researchers have found that HPD appears primarily in men and women with above-average physical appearances. Some research has suggested that the connection between HPD and physical appearance holds for women rather than for men. Both women and men with HPD express a strong need to be the center of attention. Individuals with HPD exaggerate, throw temper tantrums, and cry if they are not the center of attention. Patients with HPD are naive, gullible, have a low frustration threshold, and strong dependency needs.

Cognitive style can be defined as a way in which an individual works with and solves cognitive tasks such as reasoning, learning, thinking, understanding, making decisions, and using memory. The cognitive style of individuals with HPD is superficial and lacks detail. In their inter-personal relationships, individuals with HPD use dramatization with a goal of impressing others. The enduring pattern of their insincere and stormy relationships leads to impairment in social and occupational areas.

The task before you is to make a society based around a singular principle, which leads to a goal, values system and culture in common. Our society as it stands now is composed of the exact opposite principle: no goal, but we facilitate any idea except that which opposes our society's design. These two are opposite extremes and as time goes on, we see how our current civilization's design brings out viciously enduring problems, like a cancer.

The singular principle is a term long forgotten by popular environmentalism and that is conservation. Conservation is both sustainability and survival over time in the relatively finite spaces we are stuck with: an ecosystem, a nation, our resources, or our planet. Sustainability is stability at all levels including minimizing social upheaval, the total recycling of non-renewables like metals, or curbing status mobility to keep collectives predictable for internal power balance. Survival means that because our space is finite, any acceleration of surplus living growth within our space will need to be accompanied by a greater trimming of this growth by various means such as attrition through wars or by temporarily raising standards for who is permitted to raise offspring in a given generation.

We presently have the luxury of being able to set aside this conservation idea and for public anger management, we rationalize our keeping this historically brief luxury, modernity, with our fantasy concepts freedom and progress. Resources are yet reasonably plentiful for the West, even if distribution remains, quite naturally, inequitable globally. If we don't wish to consume our plentiful local reserves, we are yet wealthy enough to send invading forces, or the threat thereof abroad in order to install a more favorable trading partner regime therein and use their resources instead of our own. But, how many more creative economic bubbles can we summon in order to bankroll these high stakes international games? When will internal exhaustion finally steal away Western-Atlanticist political and economic will to uncontested world power? Our militaries, finances, political and even moral credibility, are by many accounts showing signs of strain right now.

Modern progress itself has been less of a complete gain, which is the illusion, and more of a trade, which is the reality concealed by this illusion. What if the lights go out and the fuel stops getting delivered for months or years? Will almost everyone survive or will there be some dieoff and chaos? We've lost rustic survival and organizational skills but gained little indeed with our resource dependencies to power our many technological comforts. Has there been social progress as advertised? The minority races and fairer sex are still complaining as ever, even as a bit more of a share is periodically given over to them for free from the majority and male. Ah, but now another cross section of society rises up with a grievance. With the recent emergence of a Globalist Superclass, class income disparity is right at or still near its all time historic high. The poor are penniless as ever but our wealthy today make the kings of old appear as paupers.

While progress is what's advertised, the actual product is the permanent revolution activity carried over from the Lenin and Trotsky era, where a million hydra heads and a new one each day of unequal injustices that, as we are told, need to be corrected, keep our civilization in its state of ceaseless, if pointless internal conflict. In retrospect, after these several generations of having this permanent revolution, this facet of progress, spending away our internal fortitude, who has benefitted after all? It is all trading for nothing but no lasting gain as promised and that is because inequality is permanent, if perfectly natural, and thus it is something we must re-adapt to in order for us to gain as a civilization once again.